Somebody Loves my Pumpkin Muffins and 'Quad' a Weekend!

It was a chilly, rainy weekend here in North Texas and I welcomed the change in weather.

At long last we were able to wear scarves and jackets and even knitted caps.

We met up with Deanie, Charlie and Andie at the BEST Golden Corral around after attending a birthday party, and it was fun to people watch and see what everyone was wearing. One lady wore a pair of skin tight shorts as well as a heavy sweater, huge scarf, knitted hat and tall winter boots.

Go figure!

Deanie is looking well these days and continues to improve in her long term health but the doctor recently told her that it will take longer than the year he had estimated. It appears that her B12 levels have been depleting and then depleted for 8 years instead of the 4 years he originally thought.

The surgery on her hand is healing nicely but she is still recovering from the recent stomach surgery she had this past Tuesday. She is one tough lady to have kept on and on all these years with next to no energy - just armed with will power and determination.

The birthday party we attended was for her youngest grandson, Tyler.

This little 7 year old loves my spiced pumpkin muffins more than anyone!!

I baked a tin full especially for him and put a coffee filter over the top of the muffins and placed some $$ on top of that. He was more excited about the muffins than the money!

He is the sweetest thing!

Louis Dean and I returned home and enjoyed our very first fireplace of the season.

At long last!!!

Oh, how I love the sound!

We had lit the candles, plugged in all the tree lights and were waiting for the quads to arrive.

They were spending the night!

I answered the door thinking it was the kids but they had fallen asleep in the car so Mike was letting them take a quick little cat nap since they hadn't slept in the afternoon. My Amber was standing at the door all alone! This gave us a few extra minutes to have a glass of wine together and visit a little bit.

Harrison woke up first and joined us and then pretty soon the whole crew arrived!

This is blurry, I know! It still shows the festive mood of the night!

Amber and Mike looked more relaxed than I have seen them in weeks!

Everyone loved spending some time together in the gazebo!

Lots of laughing and talking......

The kids arrived in their warm footed pajamas so we had a quick meal of pizza hot from the oven.

For dessert I served Christmas Tea Cakes from Miss Debbie.

The parents left for some much needed down time and we continued the fun.

I could hear the kids as they went from one room to the next admiring all the decorations.

Before bed they were hungry again! Of Course!!

I fixed them a bedtime snack of Dilly Bits and fresh strawberries with a touch of raw sugar.

One of Louis Dean's favorite Christmas songs is Pretty Paper.

While Logan didn't sing along with Granddad, she seemed to enjoy dancing with her hands.

I had the bedroom all ready for them.

Every year, Granddad reads How the Grinch Stole Christmas and it brings back such good memories of when he did a school play of it with his second graders. It is truly one of his all time best memories and each Christmas since we have been married, he has read it to the grandchildren who were young back then and then to small neighbor children and now to the young grandchildren we have now.

He gets into the spirit of the book by wearing his Grinch hat!

The kids were spellbound!

After the reading, they all settled down and were asleep within 15 minutes. 

Granddad sat in there with them until the last one was sound asleep.

We find this makes bedtime so much easier than leaving them alone as then they start to play and laugh and before you know it they are all wide awake!

They slept a full 9 hours.

As I put them to bed, Logan asked if they could wake me up in the morning.

No. That's one of my few rules. You DON'T wake MeeMaw!!!

They were up at 8:00 and so was Louis Dean. I slept until 9:00.

By the time I was up and about, LD was in the kitchen making breakfast.

Sausage and gravy, scrambled eggs, cinnamon toast and I made hash brown potatoes.

A good way to start the day!

I love to hear the children talk amongst themselves.

Seldom do they take turns.

They all talk at the same time and whomever I am looking at simply gets louder and louder!

The conversations are always entertaining!

We went back to our decorating after the dishes were done.

Trystan has such patience with details and hanging the tinsel was her favorite part.

This is 'their' tree and they did a good job of decorating it!

I have a lot of Christmas books and that's what they choose to read during their visits now since the others have been put away.

I told them the wooden bear was their mommy's first Christmas ornament from Sister Summer.

We went on to decorate the tree in the sewing room as well.

All those extra hands can really knock out some of the work!

The kids requested Granddad play some more music and you don't have to ask him twice.

He's working on Away in the Manger with them and by Christmas Eve, I think they will have it down.

He loves having them participate in the music.

Next Harrison sang with him. I had gone to the kitchen by that time but he came to get me and asked me to watch him and take his picture. 

That look he has at the end melts my heart!

I brought a couple of the manger scenes that they could play with and this entertained them for quite awhile plus added to the meaning of the song.

Tomorrow we will do art appreciation of some famous paintings of Baby Jesus in the manger.

Lunch was easy peasy chicken nuggets and sweet potato fries with pumpkin muffins and more strawberries....one of the favorite fruits they all like!

Harrison said the prayer and he recited The Lord's Prayer. It was beautiful.

After he said amen, he told me, "My daddy taught that prayer to me."

Precious.

The parents were here to pick them up shortly after lunch.

Kailey asked to use my camera and took roughly 50-60 photos.

This is one of them.

She caught me checking my phone!

She took this one, too.

The kids are fascinated with Nutcrackers and one of their classmates has been to see The Nutcracker.

I found an old story/coloring book from Amber's childhood and read them the story and they will color a paper to go along with it tomorrow. Trystan is trying to figure how dancing comes into play with the story.

It was a great weekend and I enjoyed every moment!

When they leave, it's like all the energy went with them.

It's a tradition to roll down the windows so the kids can call out their last goodbyes!

It was so quiet when we went back inside.

I decided to take that opportunity and went straight to bed with my book and then napped for two hours! They will be back for Quad Monday in the morning!